Bloodletting
by clair de lune
Summary: Lucius has a plan to turn Harry to the dark side. So how does that plan involve locking Hermione in Draco's bedroom for the summer? (chapter 3 is up)
1. In which Draco eats apples

Hermione woke slowly.  With huge effort she cracked her eyelids open, but after a few moments of squinting she realised she couldn't focus on anything.  The room before her, even though she was pretty sure it was bathed in sunlight, was a complete blur.  She closed her eyes again and tried to take a steady breath.  She could already tell that her head was too heavy to lift.  The throbbing at her temples was almost too much to bear.

As she lay there with her eyes closed, she tried to remember where she had fallen asleep.  From the feel of it, she knew she lying in a heap on a hardwood floor.  She tried opening her eyes slowly again but immediately closed them against the sunlight.  It was when she tried, and failed, to bring her hands up to her head that she realised something was very, very wrong.

*~*~*~*~*

Draco muttered quietly to himself and absently chewed on a green apple as he climbed the staircase leading to the north wing of the house.  "Bloody house elves," he grumbled.  "Bloody great tossers."  He had been perfectly content sitting in the kitchen, doing nothing but chewing on apples and watching two squirrels tear each other apart on the front lawn, but then the bloody house elves had to begin making a racket getting ready for dinner.  So Draco gave them all a piece of his mind and grabbed a handful of apples and headed back to his room, where he had been hiding the majority of the time since summer holidays had started a month ago.

"Bloody great old coot," he muttered as he passed his father's doorway, which was closed, as usual.  He was in a particularly bad mood with his father at the moment.  Most of the time Draco loved acting like his father's perfect little henchman, but ever since Lucius had informed him that Crabbe and Goyle couldn't spend the summer with the Malfoys as usual, Draco had been decidedly nasty to him.  And what infuriated Draco even more was that his father seemed to think it was extremely amusing.

Draco balanced his apples in one arm and threw open the door to his room with the other.  He immediately scowled.  "How many times to I have to tell those ruddy house elves not to open the curtains…"  He drifted off as he looked down to the floor a few feet in front of him.  He squinted as if he wasn't quite sure what he was seeing.  Because what he was seeing looked an awful lot like Hermione Granger lying in a heap on his bedroom floor.

Draco's squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again.  She was still there.  Passed out, hands tied behind her back, hair looking like she had just run through a wind tunnel.

"Father?" Draco said absently, almost in shock.  He stepped back out of the room and slammed the door.  Five seconds later he was pounding on his father's door, then threw it open without waiting for Lucius to answer.

"Father," he tried to say as calmly as possible.  Lucius was sitting at his desk, back to the door, scribbling furiously on a piece of paper.  "Father, there's a mudblood in my bedroom."

Lucius continued writing but answered vaguely, "For the fourth time, Draco, there are more apples is the cupboard."

"Father," Draco was on the verge of yelling.  "You don't seem to understand.  There's a _mudblood_ in my _bedroom."_

Lucius turned to face his son, a small smirk coming over his face.  "Good.  She's arrived."


	2. In which a pile of mudblood is found

Draco stared slack-jawed at his father.  "What do you mean, she's arrived??"

Lucius ignored his son's question and turned back to his desk, reaching for a small green-tinged goblet and stirring the contents.  "Is she awake?" Lucius asked absently, removing the tiny spoon.  He leaned forward and lightly smelled the goblet.  Apparently satisfied, he tossed the spoon beside a pile of scrolls on his desk.

Draco watched what he was doing in confusion.  "No," he finally answered, a bewildered look on his face.  "She's just a great pile of mudblood lying on the floor."

"Well," Lucius began, facing Draco as he raised the goblet and held it out to his son.  "Wake her up and have her drink this."

Draco regarded his father as if he were deranged.  "What is going on??" he demanded.  "_What is Granger doing here??_"

"You'll find out soon enough," Lucius answered.  "But for now I need you to give this to Miss Granger to drink."  He shoved the goblet into Draco's hand with a firm look.  "And I need you to be," he seemed to be searching for the right word, "_cordial_ to her."

Draco was speechless.

"I do assume you know what that word means?" Lucius drawled condescendingly.

Draco glared at his father before resentfully answering, "Yes."

Lucius sighed.  "That's quite enough of that tone, Draco," he said, standing up from his desk and moving to tower over his son.  "I suggest that you do as you're told without question.  Miss Granger is to drink that, and she is not to leave your room.  Do you understand?"

Draco stared up at him and answered, "Yes, father," through the slightest hint of clenched teeth.

"Good."

Lucius nodded his head toward the door.  Draco scowled at his father for a moment, then finally turned without a word and exited the room, slamming the door behind him.  Lucius watched him go, the satisfied smirk once again coming over his face.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Author's note:  Thank you for the reviews.  You guys are sweet, and I really appreciate them.  Sorry about the short chapters, but I can't write any other way!  I'd rather write a bit then post, it's just works for me, or inspires me to write more.


	3. In which there is screaming

Hermione heard a door slam and was jerked back into semi-consciousness.  The room was still glaringly bright, and her head still rested on the floor.  She opened her eyes and squinted until her vision came into better focus.  After a moment and with huge effort she raised her throbbing head.

Through heavy-lidded eyes, she recognized nothing.  It was obviously a boy's room, that much she could tell.  Not unlike Ron's, with Quidditch posters on the walls, only the team was wearing black robes and seemed much more menacing than the good-natured Chudley Cannons.

Hermione, by using what strength she had to push herself up with her elbows, was finally able to bring herself to a sitting position.  Her wrists were knotted firmly behind her, but her thinking was cloudy and her head was still pounding fiercely.  She felt like she had been drugged, but she still had enough sense about her to know that she needed to at least figure out where she was.

Her drowsy eyes roamed the room.  Bed, dresser, desk, wardrobe.  The room was huge.  It was when her eyes reached the bookcase that an alarm went off in her head.  A Slytherin scarf, slung carelessly over a pile of books.  And leaning up against the case, a sleek broomstick.  A Nimbus 2001.

Her breath caught in her throat.  Her thinking was no longer cloudy.  Her brain was screaming at her to get out, GET OUT!  Her eyes were transfixed by the Nimbus 2001.  It can't be, _it can't be._

The words "Oh my God" had formed on her lips, but no sound came out, just as the door to the room burst open.  Hermione's heart leapt as her eyes darted from the broom to the door.  Draco Malfoy stood in the doorway, suppressed anger written all over his face, a small goblet gripped in his hand.

Hermione took in a rasping, horrified breath.  She fully intended to scream, but before she could find her voice she saw that Draco's eyes had moved down her body in a curious glance.

_Cordial_ rang through Draco's head.  How was he supposed to be cordial to _her?_  Especially since at some point her skirt had become tangled and was now conveniently showing off her knickers.

His eyes moved quickly back to her face.  "Granger," he said in some form of stiff salutation.

Hermione, following his eyes, looked down and saw her own knickers.  She fretfully wriggled until she was covered and looked up again.  He was coming toward her.

She finally found her voice.  "_Get away from me!!_" she shrieked, trying to scoot away until she realised her back was against some piece of heavy furniture.  "_Get AWAY!!"_  Then in her panic she let loose the longest, loudest scream she could muster.

Draco stared dumbfounded.  What the hell was he supposed to do??  He knew if he got any closer, Granger would probably give him a good kick to the shins.  So in the midst of all the screaming, he did the only thing he knew how to do.  He turned, threw open his bedroom door and made as fast an exit as possible.


End file.
